Microelectronic devices generate heat as a result of the electrical activity of the internal circuitry. In order to reduce the damaging effects of this heat, thermal management systems have been developed to remove the heat. Such thermal management systems have included heat sinks, heat spreaders, fans, and various combinations that are adapted to thermally couple with the microelectronic device.
With the development of faster, more powerful, and more densely packed microelectronic devices such as processors, traditional methods of cooling may be ineffective, inefficient, or impractical. For example, processors may have local high heat flux regions called hot spots that create elevated and non-uniform temperature distributions within the die package and cooling system. Resultant overheating compromises the reliability and speed of such devices. Hot spots may need more cooling than traditional cooling methods can provide. In this regard, improved cooling technology is needed to remove the generated heat from localized hot spots of microelectronic devices to prevent overheating.
Thermoelectric coolers (TEC) and associated techniques are emerging as an improved thermal solution for high-power, densely populated microelectronic devices such as processors and other integrated circuit dies. A thermoelectric cooler may have a cold side where heat is absorbed by electrons as they pass from a low energy level in a p-type semiconductor element, to a higher energy level in an n-type semiconductor element. A power supply may provide the energy to move the electrons through the system. At a hot side, energy may be expelled to a heat sink as electrons move from a high energy level element (n-type) to a lower energy level element (p-type).
Unfortunately, heat may recirculate back from the hot side to the cold side through thermal and electrical insulation that may be positioned between the multiple n-type and p-type elements. Such recirculation of heat may diminish TEC efficiency. Furthermore, contact resistance between the power supply and electrically conductive materials may increase the amount of recirculated heat. Therefore, improvements are needed to prevent generation and recirculation of heat back to the cold side of the TEC to avoid overheating of microelectronic devices.